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This seemed to mollify Dean, who grunted at Daisy.
Casey reached out his arms, surprisingly. “Can I hold her?”
Violet handed off her daughter to her new uncle, tears blurring her vision as she watched Casey smile tenderly down at her.
“What’s her name?”
Violet swallowed. “We were thinking about Hope.”
Casey trailed a finger over Hope’s cheek. “I think that’s perfect.”
Dean’s phone rang, and he stepped out of the room to take it.
“I think I’m going to go grab a cup of coffee, see if maybe I can score a hot doctor’s number,” Daisy said, shimmying her hips out the door.
Violet shook her head. “Isn’t she dating a med student already?”
“Not anymore, apparently,” Casey said.
As Violet watched Casey move around the room with Hope, she sniffled. “I’m going to miss you when you leave.”
Casey glanced up to meet her gaze, a puzzled expression on his handsome face. “I’m going to be home in a few months for Thanksgiving.”
“I know, but the house won’t be the same without you.”
“You mean, you’re going to miss me and my friends eating all of your food and trampling all over your clean house?”
“Of course I will.” In truth, Violet had always known that Casey and Daisy would go off to college and start their own lives someday, and there had been a time when she’d looked forward to it. But today, it all felt too soon. Everything was changing so fast. “I remember the day Mom brought you home from the hospital. You had soft red hair and alien fingers. I just can’t believe that—”
“Okay, enough, you are just suffering from a wash of hormones or something.” Casey sat down next to her and handed her back her daughter. “You do not need to stress and worry about me. I’m going to be fine, and I guarantee that you will be so busy, you will probably forget my name half the time.”
“You’re stupid,” Violet said. “I’m going to miss you so much, I’ll probably call you a dozen times a day and show up at your dorm, embarrassing you in front of all your cool new friends.”
Casey squeezed her shoulder with a smile. “You never embarrass me, Vi . . . except when you do that thing where you try to sing and it just sounds like fighting cats—”
She would have smacked him, but her arms and heart were too full. “You’re a brat.”
“I am what you made me.”
A lump burned at the back of her throat. “Then I did really good.”
Dean chose that moment to return, glancing between them curiously. “That was my mom. She’s laid over in Denver but will be here soon.”
“Well, I’ve got some more packing to do, and you need to rest. New babies are brutal, I hear.” Casey winked at them as he left the room, and Dean chuckled.
“I’m gonna miss that kid.”
“Me, too.” Violet leaned her head back against the pillow and gazed up at him. “I’m so tired.”
“Here, I’ll put her in the crib and let you get some rest.”
Violet loved the way Dean carried Hope, as if she would shatter in his arms at any moment. As he laid her in the plastic crib, Violet scooted over on the bed. “Come up here.”
With an eyebrow raised doubtfully, he shook his head. “There’s not enough room.”
“We’ll snuggle. Come on, I need you.”
And that was all she had to say. Slowly and carefully, Dean crawled up into the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her.
